Editor's Letter

Cause Ceélèbre

When Dr. Elizabeth Morgan went to prison in 1987, millions of mothers thought she was a heroine. She had refused to comply with a court order that allowed her ex-husband, Dr. Eric Foretich, overnight visits with their young daughter, Hilary, charging that he used them to rape the child. The case reverberated at many levels: the shock of an accomplished professional family riven by charges of sexual abuse; the right of a mother, in any circumstance, to act in what she sees as the best interests of her child; the plausibility of the utterances of a disturbed toddler; the possibility of manipulation in a divorce vendetta; and, above all, the ordeal of little Hilary Foretich.

Where was Hilary in the 759 days her mother was in a District of Columbia cell? At the other end of the earth, where she had been spirited by her maternal grandparents. Her father, who all along has claimed he is the victim of a crazy smear campaign, finally tracked her down in February in New Zealand, where she has since been joined by her mother. There the New Zealand courts are being asked to decide whether or not Hilary should be returned to the United States. In coming to that decision, they will be faced, like the American courts, with penetrating the mists of hysteria, obsession, prurience, and fear that surround this extraordinary case.

M. A. Farber has spent the last six months trying to pluck out the heart of the mystery for Vanity Fair. He has examined thousands of pages of medical and psychiatric records and court transcripts from the United States and New Zealand. He has interviewed at length both Dr. Morgan and Dr. Foretich, as well as scores of lawyers, family members, and friends. He has looked into Foretich's previous marriage, which produced a daughter who has made her own allegations. He has read Elizabeth Morgan's diaries and the letters she and her husband sent to each other during and after their marriage. But most important for assessing where truth may lie, he reports what the children said really happened.

It is a disturbing story that is still being played out in the hearts and minds of a shattered family. Whatever the New Zealand courts decide, justice may never be served when it has meant subjecting a frightened little girl to years of demeaning physical examinations and psychological grillings by "experts," pressed into the service of a bitter parental war.

Editor in chief